Dash flew as fast as she could. Sweat beads running down her neck and chest, she knew that she was going as fast as she could without completely draining herself of energy. But yet, as far as she flew, as fast as she travelled, she still felt the creeping coldness of the terror that chased her. She wasn’t even sure where she was, she couldn’t tell if there was a ground beneath her, ocean or if she was as high as she could go, but she knew that something was at her tail and it wanted her. The wind that enveloped her face grew colder until it was nearly unbearable, and the atmosphere around her grew dark. Dash braved the terrible sight and looked over her shoulder. A shadowy figure, wide winged and billowing a thick smoke chased after her, only a dozen metres or so behind. She felt fear set into her heart and decided to concentrate on her flying. Dash turned and was met by a sharp pain to her face as she struck something hard.

A series of long, thick built fingers wrapped around her head with a slowness that almost teased Dash. She could feel her breath grow shallow and quickened while her wings fell limp in terror. As soon as she remembered what she was originally trying to escape something grabbed her from behind, and all of a sudden the giant hand that had grabbed her somehow dissipated into complete darkness. All Dash could she was a howling abyss of darkness, all she could feel was the cold grip f something holding her from behind. Dash clicked back into panic and flapped her wings hard and fast paced. As if reacting to the movement a pain bit down on Dashs’ right wing, and to her horror, started gnawing on it. She could feel blood run down her feathers and she could feel sharp teeth grind on bone, but she couldn’t scream, she couldn’t do anything. Because it wasn’t real.

Dash awoke.

She screamed in pain as she once again came to, once again bearing the agony of a broken and twisted wing. She felt a tugging pain as she rose and fell, her wing swinging lifelessly behind her. She could feel a metallic coolness under her arm, between her breasts, on her face and displaced around her legs. She squirmed in discomfort and pain, yet it was like snuggling into a boulder, every time she moved she found yet another cold surface at a different angle. She could hear a steady, fast paced beat of heavy footsteps below her along with the occasional grind of metal on metal.

“N-n-n.....n-n-n-no................” Dash breathed as her mind was wracked by pain and disorientation.

She opened her left eye slightly to see a large face look down at her for a second before looking back up and straight ahead of its direction of travel. It seemed like hours passed of squirming, crying, groaning and protest. The backdrop of colour that filled her sight from time to time grew orange and pink as the sun set far off into the hills and mountains beyond. It must have been an hours’ walk since departing ponyville, as the sun had already been headed back down.

“We’re here,” A deep and intimidating voice announced, one that Dash had trouble remembering who it came from. Something inside her knew that something bad was going to happen, and with that last thought painting her weakened mind, she blacked out.

“We’re here,” Ajax announced.

He didn’t expect a response, but he thought it best to alert the creature to what was happening. Ajax was perplexed as he felt the small native grow limp and lifeless, opposed to the normal squirming that had been the feature of Ajaxs’ journey. As a space marine, Ajax found it strange how a creature could grow so attached to an appendage. For his kind the body was a vessel, a simple organic vehicle that could be repaired, and in failing that, have portions removed and replaced.

He looked on to the large adamantine doors of the monastery, ribbed and riveted. At his approach, a servo skull attached to the wall leading to the doorway lit up with a green glow as an eye photoceptor implanted in one of its eye sockets activated. The green light scanned the space marine with analysis lasers as it extended on a mechanical ‘neck’ to ‘look’ at him from multiple angles.

“Approved,” The buildings computer said through the vox speaker on the wall, ever in its dead and lifeless tone.

The large door gave a hiss as hydraulics released and pistons came to life. The first layer of door slid down into the ground, the second split into two tooth edged pieces and slid away horizontally. As the second set of doors opened Ajax moved in, his footsteps resonating as his metal boots kissed metal floor. Continuing on he marched through the wide corridor that led to the main chamber, but diverted left and into the apothecarion wing of the monastery. The wing was large enough to accommodate over forty battle brothers, even a dreadnaught or two, but these statistics would do little to aid the weakening creature he held in his arms.

Ajax walked to the nearest medical room and released the heavy lock that sealed its glass door. In fact, the whole room was glass say for the farthest wall, this held a number of equipment racks, servitors and monitors used for medical practise. He walked inside and up to the surgical bed, hitting a switch to make its surface inflate into something more comfortable, ensuring the patient was face down when he placed her down with care. Next her keyed in an activation code into the rooms interface and watched the various machinery whir to life. Servo arms swung down and circled the bed along with a wide lamp. Servitors on tracks groaned as the rolled next to the bed while servo skulls floated in, harnessed with jars of surgical fluid and scanning equipment. Finally a staff of adepts and serfs, ghostly and pale eyed creatures in bright white robes, skittered and glided into the room. The formed a line and turned to face Ajax, two standing as tall as himself but thin and bodies primarily made of bionics, the other three no taller than Ajaxs’ waist but hunched in stance and carrying scrolls and thick books.

“This creature needs urgent medical assistance, repair the broken appendage on the right of her back,” Ajax ordered.

“Please, retrieve a chapter apothecary so we may begin the operation,” The tall adept replied in a soft, calm tone.

“I am the only astarte currently on this world, I hereby override all protocol that is non-essential to medical activities and hold full responsibility for the actions taken in this room.” Ajax new this wasn’t going to be easy.

“Very well my lord,” The adept replied as his team turned and circled the table. With a scanner mounted servo skull the adept quickly scanned the patient. “I am reluctant to say my lord, but this alien does not appear in our archives. Proceeding with a medical operation could prove dangerous for the patient,” The adept then stated.

“We have no other options; if we try nothing the limb is lost anyway. Besides, you’re performing bone and muscle reconstruction, not an organ transplant,” Ajax returned.

“Very well, my lord. Commencing procedure,” The adept announced.

At this the creature stirred and awoke. As her face was directed at it, the native must have woken up to see one of the servitors. She looked at the pale skinned servant riddled with augmetics and grizzly mechanical limbs and shook in terror. With a mechanical buzz the servitors head turned to meet her gaze with its own dead eyes, pale and unblinking. She whimpered as it leaned nearer and drew up a syringe built into its left forearm. Her breathing quickened and she gave a wince of pain as the long, hollow needle shot into her bicep and injected a sedative. Ajax felt sorry for the creature, already broken and then waking up to a lobotomised, semi mechanical servitor. But finally her eyes rolled back and she fell into a deep sleep, and seeing this as his queue to leave, Ajax stepped out the glass door and locked it behind him.

Dash woke to the cool, yet soft touch of a mattress beneath her, a pillow cushioning her face. She gave a comforted grin and snuggled into its soft embrace . Dash heard a chirping sound and thought maybe a bird had flown into her room, or maybe she had fallen asleep in a tree. She opened her eyes slightly to see a leached coloured balloon float infront of her. Then she noticed the balloon had deep holes set in it, filled with a mesh of mechanical innards. Below it hung mechanical tentacles and within one hole was set a glowing red lens. Dash screamed in surprise as she noticed it was a skull, a floating with machinery plugged into it. She reared back and simply stared at it as it hovered beside her, staring back. It chirped as it floated up to her face, mechanical sprockets whizzing around inside its head while a device at the base of the bone-dome hummed with a synthetic life.

Dashes eyes darted left to right, and seeing the unguarded door to the empty room, decided to make a break for it. She hoped out of bed and ran to the door, her muscles aching from the sudden surge of activity. She grasped a large handle that appeared to turn on the spot and put all her effort into turning it. The handle didn’t budge, not an inch of movement was given in her favour, and all the while she struggled the floating skull closed in on her with a hauntingly slow speed. Dash panicked and gave a powerful shunt with all her weight against the lock and felt a bruising pain pound at her back. She clenched her teeth and tried to put her hand around her back to feel whatever injury had been inflicted. Dash calmed down as the pain subsided, then attempting to stretch out her wings.

The left wing unfurled and was held open easily enough, the right however protested in a stubborn, grinding pain. After a couple of discomforting seconds Dash could see her right wing was encased in a layer of bandage, and on top of that a framework of mechanical harness and support. She couldn’t quite stretch the whole thing out as far as she could have, but instead saw no need to. Dash pondered for a second what had happened, the danger she had faced and the harrowing result that followed. She knew she couldn’t have defeated the gigantic creature that had threatened her friends’ life but she couldn’t have just stood there and watched. Such a thoughtless action may have just cost her the ability of flight and as a small price as it was to pay for someponies life, was an enormous loss to a pegasus whose life revolved around flying. Dashs’ fear was replaced by the gnawing of realisation, evident when the mechanical skull once again floated to her side and stared at her with its luminous red gaze.

“Yeah........what?” Dash shot at the skull that just bobbed in the air with no reply. Dash sighed and gripped the door handle again, twisting as hard as she could. The skull seemed to register Dashs’ wish to leave the room and floated to a series of circular plugs gathered at a terminal near the door. It plugged a segmented tentacle into one of the sockets, and with a hiss, the door lock twisted and the door swung open. Dash jumped back at the violent hiss of the doors release but soon gathered her courage and pushed the heavy set door open. With a grunt of effort she was free from the confines of the dull grey prison and out in a massive corridor, wide enough to fit ponyville market in its dark walls. It was long built structure, the corridor leading to some kind of chapel at one end and a massive metal doorway at the other. Dash should have run to the door and tried to find an escape route of some kind, but curiosity dug deep into her mind and she found her hooves taking her down the chapel isle. The chapel section of whatever building she was in was larger than any building she had entered in her life, easily the size of the rainbow factory in Cloudsdale, yet taller and more airy. As she stepped onto the deep red rug than led to the altar of the church she must have activated some magical lighting system, as light blue lamps flickered to life and what sounded like wind breathed through the walls. Massive statues of robed skeletons and heroic figures formed a semi-circle at the back of the church behind the altar, and infront of a ridiculously huge set of stained glass windows.

Soon she realised figures scurrying around the rows of dark wood seating and fluttering over her head. She had trouble identifying the creatures at first, but noticed how they were all smaller than her, no taller than her chest. She got a proper look at one as a cloaked figure with grey feathered wings fluttered to a black chandelier holding half molten candlesticks. It hovered in the air clutching a thick, steel rimmed book in one metal fingered hand and a long stick in the other, its tip lit with a small flame. It fluttered about the candles, lighting them one by one before moving off to the next chandelier. Dash gasped in surprise as she looked down to see a pair of grey robed creatures peering up at her with ghostly eyes and faces mutilated by mechanical contraptions. She noticed how harmless and small they appeared and knelt down to their eye level.

“Hey,” She said with affectionate eyes.

The creatures stared at her still, one tilting its head slightly as if confused by the greeting. She felt her heart melt slightly as she could almost make out a hint of sorrow set in their pale, unblinking eyes, that and the fact that one’s organic mouth was stuffed full of tubes and wires that led to its stomach, the other had some form of speaker stapled into its own.

“Do you guys live here?” She tried again, but to no avail.

“They will only respond to orders.......” A calm an somewhat synthetic voice said from behind Dash, making her spin round in a defensive manner.

She looked up to see a tall, thin cloaked creature that must have sneaked up on her. Its face was completely mechanical, holding three orange eyes and a collection of robotic pincers and mandibles for a mouth. It was much taller than her and held its hands in the other arms cloak like she heard the unicorn monks of the east did.

“..........And even then, only ones given by astarte authorisation,” The creature said with clicking pincers.

“I just want to leave, I need to get back to my friends,” Dash said with a bland tone.

“I must insist you stay miss, your injuries are still healing and to travel will only aggravate the wounds.”

“So what, are you gonna keep me here? Like a prisoner?” Dash shot in aggression.

“Not at all miss, you may leave via the primary entrance any time you wish. Though you must know that you cannot be allowed to enter again without the escort of battle brother Ajax Urien.”

“Well you can tell the big blue guy ‘thanks for the help’, but I’m outta here,” Dash said before quickly walking to the large doors.

“Of course miss,” The tall creature said passively before turning back to carry out its duties.

As Dash approached the door a ceiling mounted skulls followed her advance with its hollow eyes on humming mechanical joints before a green light blinked twice from behind its empty sockets. The doors hissed and whined as the pulled apart and let light pour in from the outside world. Dash only just noticed how dead and still the air had been inside the massive structure, unlike the ever-moving, warm equestrian winds. She practically ran out the large set of thick doors and was beaming as she felt the soft grass beneath her hooves. Dash was so caught up in raw anticipation that she forgot all about her damaged wing, and was swiftly reminded again once she tried to spread them to take flight.

Dash started her long walk back to ponyville, from where she could only assume was the far corner of the everfree forest. Dash looked back at the building she had just come from and saw how intimidating in design and size it was, standing about as high as ponyville central hall and made up of four sections linked at the middle forming somewhat of a cross shape. As she passed over the first hilltop, not twenty paces from the large building, Dash noticed a nearby set of tents that had been set up. Dash was struck with joy as she saw a tired eyed Applejack crawl out from one of the tent doors. Dash was too busy sprinting to her friends to realise how early it really was, the sun just half risen over the horizon.

“AJ!” Dash cried, but applejack was still half asleep, barely able to even walk straight while fetching herself some instant coffee.

“AJ!!” Dash practically screamed, this time making Applejack turn in surprise and confusion.

“Dash?” She asked herself quietly before realising that this wasn’t just a hopeful dream, “DASH!”

Applejack also broke out into a full sprint, meeting Dash just outside the campsite and lifting her around the waist in a tight hug which Dash eagerly returned.

“Oh Dash, I can’t even begin t’ tell yah how worried we all were,” Applejack said on the verge of tears, putting Dash down and staring at her with eye wider than the sky itself.

“Pfft, worried? About ‘The Dash’? Hah! It was barely a scratch,” Dash replied humorously.

Awoken by the commotion the Pinkie, Twilight, Fluttershy and following sluggishly behind, Rarity arose from their tents. None stayed very sombre for long once they caught sight of Dash, Pinkie outright exploding in hyperactive excitement. There was a whirlwind of relief, joy and hysteric laughter until Twilight said something Dash didn’t expect.

“Dash......I’m so sorry.”

Dash turned from Pinkie with a puzzled look, not even knowing what to say.

“If it wasn’t for me, none of this would have happened.”

Then Dash remembered, it was Twi who cast the spell which opened the alien portal and brought with it that otherworldly terror. At first Dash felt a wave of resentment for Twilight, after all it was her fault. How could she have been so stupid as to cast a spell at something she’d never seen before, and for something she had only met an hour prior. At first Dash wanted Twi to be sorry, she wanted Twi to feel the guilt she deserved to feel. But she was her friend, they had been through so much and she had always gotten their whole gang out of tricky situations before. No, Twi did deserve to feel sorry, but to Dash, not now.

“Don’t think about it Twi, I understand that we were all scared, and we all just wanted the whole thing to be over. Maybe next time you shouldn’t cast a spell at the evil-looking vortex of dread.” Dash said with a humorous inflection. Twilights’ ears folded back as she looked at the ground in defeat.

“Hey, where did Fluttershy go?” Pinkie asked.

Suddenly it hit everyone that Fluttershy had gone. Heads spun and eyes darted about frantically in search for a certain yellow Pegasus. After a couple of increasingly tense seconds Dash was the first to spot Fluttershy gracefully hovering over to the large structure Dash had just come from. Fluttershy came to a halt just short of the large front door and went to knock before a mechanical skull appeared from out the wall to her right and scanned her with a turquoise light beam.

“Oh, um, h-hello there. I was wondering, if it would be ok, if we could speak to the big blue alien please. We wanted to say thank you for fixing up our friend,” Fluttershy pleaded with her inherent adorableness and taking advantage of her hypnotic eyes.

The skull was utterly emotionless, as expected, it was just a machine after all. As expected the green light intergrated into the machinery at the base of its ‘neck’ blared red and a speaker droned a simple ‘Denied’ at her with all the warmth of a windigo. It then folded back into the wall and appeared to fall asleep instantly. Fluttershys’ confidence plummeted, such a harsh and definitive response had left her a little shaken and the rest of the girls, who had finally caught up with her, cringed at the atmosphere of it all. Fluttershy wasn’t giving up so easily though, going to the skull and giving it a gentle tap on the head. It responded immediately by unfolding again and scanning her all over again.

“Please, I know that he probably doesn’t want to talk to strange, new people, but please could you just let him know we are here. Would you do that for me?” Fluttershy begged, turning the adorable factor into overdrive with her saddened eyes and hurt voice.

The skull simply held its place, but for much longer than last time. It was perfectly still, so much that Twilight started to think perhaps she had broken it. Then a gnawing sound of machinery losing grip on itself and the sporadic clicks and whines of some kind of electrical equipment sounded from within the skull as it pivoted and twitched on its ‘neck’. It stopped after a second and droned a simply ‘Stand by’. Fluttershy gave a triumphant little smile in return as the skull seemed to stare into space for several seconds. After a short wait the group could hear the dull, rhythmic thud of heavy footsteps coming from within followed by the loud groans of machinery coming to life.

The doors opened once again to reveal Ajax, only this time without his armour. With his suit absent Ajax most certainly looked smaller, and held less bulk, but this gave little comfort to the girls. Even Fluttershy held fear in her wide eyes, taking a couple of steps back from the door as Ajax strode forth. Ajax wore a simple, beige robe along with a pair of boots that appeared to be made of woven strips of leather. He stopped just a step away from Fluttershy, obviously not knowing the meaning of personal space, or deliberately attempting to intimidate her, an attempt that was working very well.

“Miss,” He said simply, looking down at Fluttershy with a stern expression, his bright green eyes biting into Fluttershys’ own.

“Oh, um, hey. Uh, w-w-we just wanted to, um, say thank you for, uh, helping our friend. So, uh, yeh that’s all. Um, Thanks,” Fluttershys’ words were a swamp of stuttering and hesitation; she couldn’t even look the creature in the eye.

Ajax loosened his stony expression slightly, his brow almost reflecting confusion.

“Is that all? I was expecting a containment team to be sent to interrogate me. That or an angry mob of locals, I must admit I am pleasantly surprised.”

“Oh no, we wouldn’t imagine doing such a thing, you really helped us out back in town. Why I, I hate to think what would have happened if you hadn’t shown up,” Fluttershy reassured.

“I am an instrument of the Emperors will, miss; it is my duty to smite the unholy, wherever it be found. And I know you wouldn’t attempt at my capture-” Ajax then nodded into the distance, “- but I’d bet a flagon and a half that they will.”

The girls all turned to see what Ajax had pointed out and at first couldn’t see a thing. Then, off in the distance flew a flock of dark silhouettes against the orange of the rising sun. As they grew closer they could all start to make out the figures to be Pegasus ponies, then noticed that they were all royal guards, say for two distinctly larger figures at the centre of the formation. Once they were close enough, which was directly over the camp the girls had set up, the group could see that not only Princess Celestia, but also Princess Luna had arrived with what looked like 40 royal guards. They touched down just a few feet behind the girls, the two Alicorns floating down to the front.

“Girls, please step aside, I need to speak to our visitor,” Celestia asked politely and even toned, the girls obeying without question.

Ajax gave Celestia no time to make an advanced as he strode past the girls and right up to the sun Princess. Celestia had always been well known for her size and build, she was a goddess after all, but next to Ajax she looked like a child as her eyes just came up to his chin. A brave, and very foolish, royal guard saw this as a threat to the Princess and took it upon himself to step forth.

“By the order of royal sisters you are hereby under arrest and will be immediately transferred to Canterlot for questioning,” The guard said with a voice that would have sounded very intimidating had he not been standing up to something with fists as big as his head.

Ajax looked down at the tin guard, eyes burning into him with magnificent ease. The giant brought his face down to the guards level, as well as coming nose to nose with him.

“I believe your ‘princess’ has a voice of her own,” Ajax growled at the guard who quickly became a lot less brave very quickly.

As he left the guard trembling he rose to full height once again and focused his attention too Celestia once again. Celestia did well to keep her cool, keeping a stern face while standing as still as a sculpture. Luna on the other hand looked increasingly worried, shuffling back behind her older sister ever so slightly.

“Please, there are questions that we need answered. My only interest is the safety of my people and as much as I truly appreciate what you did yesterday I must ask that you come with us. Please, I don’t want to have to make enemies with you,” Celestia spoke with the most even of tones and even an inflection of humbleness, showing that she knew exactly how delicate her current situation was.

Ajax took only a second to soak in Celestias’ words before droning, “Lead the way.”

The princess gestured for Ajax to walk beside her which, after another second of analysis, he accepted. The giant walked on with powerful strides but kept in check with the princesses’ speed, her guard fearfully in tow. The girls where left alone once again, utterly taken by what had just happened and none daring to break the silence. Applejack was the first to put an arm around Rainbow Dash and lead her to a tent, the others also went to pack up there things and finally head home for a well deserved rest. It was Fluttershy who spoke first.

“Are we going home now?”

“Sure are pumpkin. Can’t wait to actually sleep in mah own bed tonight, seems like I haven’t seen it in years,” Applejack said while dumping a fully packed backpack to the ground and started de-pegging her tent.

“I couldn’t agree more. I think it’s best if we left this whole mess behind us and try to forget about it,” Rarity huffed while carefully packing away her large collection of hair products.

“Oh goodness no, you can’t be serious?” Fluttershy replied in her ever worried tone.

“What do you mean darling?”

“As soon as I’m home I’m packing some clean clothes and heading straight to Canterlot..........um, if that’s ok with you guys, I mean.”

“Why in all Equestria would you do that?! Didn’t you hear that guard? That is exactly where they are taking that.......that........thing!”

“Rarity! Shame on you! The poor thing has no idea where he is, is probably terribly homesick and that rude guard did nothing to help. I’m going to make sure he’s ok and that he’s treated well.” All the girls thought the same thing, how can she think of it as some poor, lost animal?

“I’m with you Fluttershy! Besides, I need to do a ‘Welcome to Equestria and thanks for getting rid of two meanie-weenies’ welcome party! And I’ll need you to find out what kinda cake he likes!” Pinkie added enthusiastically while throwing her arm over Fluttershys’ shoulder.

After a moment of awkward silence Fluttershy continued to pack her things, the rest of the girls doing the same after a couple of concerned looks. Apparently this little pegasus was on a mission.